


Between a rock and a hard place

by Sorbus



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Humor, Twilight's parentage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27582562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorbus/pseuds/Sorbus
Summary: Twilight had already known Time was his ancestor. He had thought that was as exciting as it could get, but life is full of surprises.orTwilight has a rocky revelation.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 189





	Between a rock and a hard place

It became apparent that Twilight was... different. 

"Wait up," Legend said, stopping the party in motion. "You don't have any power bracelets? Not even one?" 

Twilight frowned, looking around to seee that everyone had stopped to anticipate his answer. Frankly he hadn't considered that might be unusual. 

"Not really," he replied. "But Time and Wild don't have any either!" 

"Sorry Kiddo," Time cut in. He clinked his gauntlets together meaningfully. "These do the job just as well as a bracelet." 

Twilight stared at Time, a little thrown off. He'd always assumed his strength had come from his ancestor, but apparently not. "Wild?" He asked. 

Wild shrugged. "I don't have any but I don't need any when I go _woosh zoom zoom_ y'know?" He said, pointing at his slate and waving his arms around to mean- something. He wrinkled his nose. "Do you guys actually lift stuff up with your hands?" 

"How are you alive?" Asked Four. 

Wild shrugged. "Magic." 

Some examples of Twilight's unique disposition were more subtle- 

"God your teeth must be as hard as rocks," Four muttered, trying to poke his way into seeing inside Twilight's mouth. Twilight swatted his hands away.

"Harder than rocks, I'd say," Warriors muttered, glancing at the broken kinstone at their feet. "You people bake this into bread? That's a huge choking hazard you know." 

"It's tradition," Four sniped. 

"It's stupid that's what it is." Legend cut it. "Here let me see," he scooped up the broken stone. "Goddesses, broken clean in half. You sure are something, Twi." 

"You okay?" Time asked quietly, pulling Twilight slightly to the side and out of the centre of attention. Hyrule was hovering to Time's left as if anticipating that his medical knowledge would be needed. 

"I'm fine." Twilight said, but the bite had left his voice. "Promise." 

Time nodded resolutely. "Okay then."

"Anyway," Twilight said louder, speaking to the group. "I'm sure it was just a really flimsy stone. It sure doesn't look like much, does it." 

Four had grabbed the shards of the kinstone in the interim, and was muttering something too low to parse over the broken halves. Whatever Warriors was about to say in reply was cut off by Wild bursting out of the bakery behind them, dragging Wind by the arm.

"Guys, guys! Wind broke a tooth on a stone thingy from the bread we bought!" 

"Argh, ge' off me-" Wind was saying, but had to stop when blood dribbled out of his mouth. "Fuhck!"

"Language," Time muttered, as the rest of them descended upon a long-suffering Wind. In the commotion, Twilight and his monster strong teeth were forgotten. 

-and other instances were more noticeable. 

"Blast! Fellas this is death mountain!" Warriors called, "Do you all have heat resistant items?" 

Time was frantically unlatching his overheating armour, keeping a bright tunic tucked between one arm and his ribs. Wild was shucking on some tin-can monstrosity with surprising ease, having already started as soon as they left the portal into the burning air around them. Legend was cursing, pulling off most of his rings and rooting around almost erratically before he pulled out a large, almost ugly ring with a huge gemstone set in the centre. He slipped it on and immediately sighed in relief.

Sky was looking fine, his red earings glinting in the light reflecting off the lava around them. He was grabbing potions from the Sheikah Slate under Wild's direction, handing one out to Wind, Hyrule, and Four. He got to the last one and paled so suddenly it could be seen even over the flush of warmth in the area. 

"Wild we're one too short!" He said, waving his arms around. He was right, there one bottle left in his hand, and neither Warriors nor Twilight had grabbed anything to protect them from the heat.

"Give it to Warriors," Twilight cut in, pointing to the Captain who was looking increasingly flushed. "He looks like he's going to faint."

"Are you sure?" Sky asked, anxious. 

"Oh for the love of-" Legend grabbed the bottle before thrusting it at Warriors who gulped it's potion down gratefully. He stopped swaying on his feet. 

"Thanks," he rasped. 

"Here, let me help." Time said, stepping up from seemingly nowehere and now wearing the red tunic. His own armour was set neatly in a pile to the side behind him. Slowly he lowered Warriors to the ground before working on unstrapping his armour. "You okay?" Time asked in that quiet, steady voice of his.

Warriors nodded. "Yeah, thanks. And thanks to you too, Wild. That sure is-" he coughed. "That sure is some potent stuff."

Wild nodded, his armour clanking loudly with each movement. He went over to check on Wind, who despite having drunk a flame guard potion, seemed to be in some small amount of shock at the environment around them. 

Sky took the opportunity to come up to Twilight. "Are you okay? You aren't burning up?" 

Twilight waved him off. "I'm fine, don't worry. A little heat won't kill me."

"A little heat?" Legend asked, incredulously. "If it weren't for Wild half our party would have been toast." 

"In my defence," Hyrule said. "My death mountain is a lot less... glowy." 

"It's called magma," Wind said. "I read about it! Apparently it's all underneath our seas and everything! I've never seen it before." 

"Actually it's called lava when it's above ground," Four replied. "As for me, when I encountered my own death mountain I simply manipulated the elements around me to keep me cool."

"Why didn't you do that this time then, hotshot?" Legend sniped. 

"I can't, anymore." Four muttered, glancing at the multicoloured light that reflected off his sword. 

There was a resulting lull in conversation. Whatever had changed must have been painful for Four. Twilight almost thought the awkward moment would stretch out endlessly, until Time stood up with a huff. His knees cracked audibly. 

"Ouch," Legend muttered from somewhere behind him. 

"Old," Wind snickered, only to yelp, the light sound of Hyrule smacking him accompanying it. 

"You'll live, Captain." Time said, stretching upward until his back popped. Twilight winced at the sound. Maybe he could slip the old man a spare futon to double up on. Nobody's joints should be sounding like that. 

"Now," he said, facing the others and clapping his hands together. They all stood a little straighter at the sound. "Legend is right," Time said, ignoring Legend's reflexive ' _Hah_!'. "We really were unprepared for this eventuality, and if it weren't for Wild we would be a lot worse off." He nodded once at Wild in acknowledgement, who raised a hand to the back of his head in shy embarrassment. 

"Obviously we're all covered right now, but we should try and pool our resources to make sure it isn't so close cut the next time something like this happens." 

"Well I have my earrings," Sky said, gesturing to the red rings in his ears. "They were a gift from the goddess, but I don't really know if they'll work as well apart..." he trailed off. 

"Better not risk it then." Time said. "I only have one goron tunic, but if we ever go back to my Hyrule we can easily buy another."

"I only have one of these rings as well," Legend said.

"You? Only having one ring?" Warriors asked, laughing. "The horror." 

"Shut it scarf boy! At least I didn't almost burn to a crisp." 

"Hey! I've never been to death mountain before. Impa took care of it." 

"Now, now." Time said. "Cool it." He paused, then smirked. 

Wild snickered and Wind groaned.

"Okay so Wild has whatever... that is," Legend said, waving an arm vaguely at all of Wild. "What about you, farm boy? Got something good for us?" 

"Me?" Twilight asked in surprise. "I don't have anything." 

"Wait are you serious?" Legend said.

"No fair!" Wind piped up. 

"Do you think he's joking?" Warriors asked Sky lowly. Sky shrugged. Four responded in his stead, "he must be." 

"Well I don't sense any magic coming from him," Hyrule added. "Maybe he took a potion when we weren't looking?"

Wild walked up to Twilight to suddenly that Twilight stumbled a few steps backwards. He took his flame breaker heltmet off, exposing his face, ruddy from sweat, to the hot air and took a big sniff. 

"He doesn't smell like potion." Wild concluded. 

Twilight pushed him out of his immediate bubble. "What are you, an animal?" 

"You can smell potions?" Four asked. 

"Yeah Wild," Legend said, snarkily. "I thought Wolfie was the only animal around." 

"You shut up," Twilight shot back. 

"Hey now, this is no time to fight." Time cut in once more. "As long as Twilight is alright," Time said, pausing to look at Twilight, who nodded "then we'll let him be. Whatever works. Now unless these potions last forever-"

"They don't," Wild said.

"-Which they don't, thank you Wild, then I suggest we get a move on and get to cooler ground. That alright?" 

A chorus of affirmative responses rang out as the party members went through the practiced motions of gathering all their stuff. Twilight did his own customary check, but he found himself distracted. Trailing behind everyone as he made their start down the mountain, he could only wonder the same thing the others had: why didn't the heat affect him too? 

Some of Twilight's oddities were only obvious in retrospect. 

"Are you aiming for a record there or something, farm boy?" Legend asked, pointing at the small pile of salt Twilight had added onto his meal.

Twilight shrugged. "I like it salty." 

"I'll bet," Warriors muttered, shuddering visibly as Twilight mixed what must have been the equivalent of an entire rock of salt into his food, and ate a spoonful. "That's vile." 

"You're going to eat your way into an early grave," Four said. 

"Let the man be." Time called from across the camp. 

" _Thank_ you," Twilight said, resentful. There was nothing wrong with how he liked his meals. 

"Although pup," Time continued with a kind smile. "You might want to keep an eye on it. I don't think our cook would ever forgive you if you finished all our salt reserves." 

Twilight huffed, but nodded. He rolled his eyes at Wild's wary look, before getting back to his meal. Better not let it get cold. 

In fact in most situations, Twilight didn't think of himself as noticeably different. But those few instances where he was the only outlier in the group kept piling up. For a short time he was worried there had been some lasting side-effects from his stint as a wolf, but really he'd been strong his whole life. He didn't tire easily, he soaked up warmth to no end, his teeth had never rotted in the same way many other villagers' did, and his stamina was off the charts. That was true even before his adventures. 

Which meant that surely it must be an issue inherent in him.

Before Twilight could bring it up, hopefully to Time and ideally in in private, it all came to a head in a very public way. 

"I'm sorry, brother. I can't let you in." 

The goron guard looked apologetic, but his voice and stance was firm. 

"Is there nothing we can do?" Time asked, ever willing to reason. "The flower we need for this medicine only grows in these caves. Please, it's urgent that we make it." 

Even before he had finished speaking the guard was shaking his head. "When I say I can't, I mean it. The great spirit Eldin created these caves as a sacred refuge to the gorons years ago, when we needed it most. By the spirit's will, only goron's can enter." 

Wind had eaten something bad. Some berry he thought he'd recognized, but turned out to have a vastly different effect from what he was familiar. They'd consulted a local herbalist, who'd granted them a fifty-fifty chance of Wind's survival. The only way to guarantee it lay in a medicine that was near impossible to get - the main ingredients being a flower that grew high up in the goron caves, out of reach of most of its inhabitants. 

Warriors and Hyrule had stayed behind with Wind at their inn - Hyrule to keep an eye on his condition, and Warriors for emotional support. It was unclear if Warriors was supposed to be the support or recieve it. 

"Surely-" Time started to reason once more, only to be cut off by the guard. 

"Look, brother. I'll even let you try to get in, but I'm telling you it won't work." He stood aside, leaving the entrance to the caves clearly accessible. 

Time eyed him warily. He would have been more unwilling to try in other circumstances, disbelieving at how easy it was, and suspecting a trap. Unfortunately they couldn't afford to be so suspicious at this point. 

He made his way forward, slowly but surely. Almost at the entrance, Time was nearly convinced that the story had simply been a myth, except at that moment a transparent red barrier popped into existence and barred his way forward. Time lay a hand flat against it. It was firm and unyielding. 

"Maybe we could try the market again?" Wild suggested, subdued. Four shook his head beside him. 

"We checked that place top to bottom. They didn't have it."

"Here, let me try." Legend said, stalking up to the barrier. 

"Hey brother I wouldn't-" 

As soon as he slammed a fist on the barrier Legend was sent flying back. Sky dived forward to catch him. 

"That's why we have a guard," said the guard, apologetic. "Otherwise it'd be Hylians flying all day. People don't believe us when we say you can't get in." 

Twilight could feel the cloud of despair fall over the group. They really had tried everything, but even if they petitioned a goron to try and scale the caves inside in order to reach the flowers' breeding groud, too much time would have passed. 

Time had not yet moved, his hand still resting gently on the barrier as if he were pleading with it to let him pass. It must be difficult to realise it was a dead end. Twilight was feeling bad and he wasn't the one most of these heroes looked up to. 

Slowly he walked forward, hand outreached to lead Time back to the rest of the group. They were already starting to turn their backs on the caves. 

But when he went to grasp hold of Time's hand, instead of meeting a solid wall like his mentor had, Twilight's hand slipped through. 

Time's head snapped up, his eye trained unwavering in Twilight's face. 

"Wait." Time said. 

The rest of the group had paused at the order. Four had turned all the way around, and stood, staring at Twilight.

"What-?" Legend asked, glancing around before he did a double take. "Are you kidding me?" 

"Wait does that mean Twilight...?" Sky trailed off, unsure. 

"Is part goron?" The guard's loud voice cut through the atmosphere like knife through butter. "You better believe it! Welcome, brother!" 

The guard gave Twilight a big pat on the back, and he stumbled forward. Even more dammingly, he went straight through the barrier.

"I- I don't-" Twilight muttered, still staring at the hand which had made it through. 

"Hey." Time's voice cut through the white noise of Twilight's thoughts. "Deep breath, with me, okay?"

Twilight nodded, matching his breathing to Time's exaggerated ins and outs. It took a few moments, but he felt much calmer.

There was still a buzzing in the back of his mind, and he could hear the rest of the group muttering in low voices. Twilight forced himself to focus on time instead. 

"Now, do you know what the flower looks like?" 

A nod. Time nodded back. "Good. It'll be up high, growing out from the rock. Check for natural sky lights, okay?"

Another nod. 

"Good." Time said. "Good. Take my hookshot in case you need it." 

Time pulled it out from his pack, holding it out in front of him but unable to pass it to Twilight directly. Twilight reached out, his hand breaking through the barrier once more to grasp the item. He pulled it back, purposefully ignoring the shimmering red wall altogether. 

Time smiled. "Good luck." 

And then Twilight was gone. 

Although the guard was still present, he made sure to look purposefully uninvolved in order to give the group some semblance of privacy. The atmosphere was still, as Time walked back to his companions and set himself decisively on the group in order to wait.

With a shrug, Wild followed suit, with the rest of them quickly shucking off their packs and finding their own space to sit down. 

It remained quiet, almost tense for a moment and then-

"Well I for one, am not surprised." 

"Legend," Sky hissed. Legend rolled his eyes.

"Come on, don't tell me you are? Farm boy wouldn't know normal if it smacked him in the face- hey!" 

"Don't be rude, or I'll smack you again." Sky warned. 

"Okay, okay." Legend shrugged carelessly. "So, how do you think a goron and a human, y'kno-"

"I'm going to stop you right there." Time said. 

Legend nodded his head but his face was grinning. 

It was quiet again for a moment before-

"I knew his teeth were rock solid." Four muttered, vindicated. Wild burst out laughing besides him, and suddenly the atmosphere wasn't half as tense anymore. 

" _Gneiss_ one Four," he said. "That one was really _solid_."

Sky groaned dramatically, but he was smiling all the same.

"Are we really?" Legend moaned. 

"All _ore_ nothing I say," Wild shot back.

"That doesn't even make sense," Four replied. 

"Don't be so hard on me," Wild continued. "I'm under a lot of pressure here. I won't _gravel_ but if you could chip in with a cobble of good ones, that would be a blast." 

"Goddess above," Legend said. 

But it had worked. Wild was grinning well- wildly. Sky was trying very hard not to egg him on by laughing, but he obviously wanted to. Four was rolling his eyes but his expression was fond. Even Time's posture had softened. 

Both sooner than they expected and longer than they could afford, Twilight returned flower in hand. Whatever had happened inside, some of the tension had left his posture, though it was quickly evident that he was mightily nervous of the others' reactions. 

Legend scoffed, getting to his feet. "Took you long enough. What were you doing, chowing down rocks in there?" 

"Hey-" Sky started to say, but stopped at the way Twilight relaxed and rolled his eyes with a smile. Legend shot him a triumphant look. 

Four, ever the pragmatist, went up to Twilight to clasp him on the shoulder. "Glad to have you back," he said simply. 

Wild, a little less subtle, gave him two big thumbs up. 

Sky smiled up at him. "I hope you know this doesn't change anything. I mean, unless you want it to! Then it can change everything, but it doesn't unless you say so and uhm- I'm glad you made it out alright!" 

"Thanks Sky." Twilight said warmly. 

"What, for that word vomit?" Legend sniped. "Hey, stop it!" He said, smacking Sky back. 

Finally Twilight looked to Time, and there was that tension again. Time brought himself to his feet and lay a hand on Twilight's shoulder.

"Thank the geodes above, I'm glad you're back Pup. That was a- _stone_ -ishingly quick." 

"Old man." Twilight groaned, but he had finally relaxed.

"Yes!" Wild shouted. "Join me!" 

Legend made a face. "Did it take you that long to think of one?"

"Goddesses, I'm surrounded by children." Four said. It was offset by the fact that he easily was the shortest one there. "Lets get back before they die of old age." 

That sobered them up again. Wind was waiting for them, after all. 

Soon they were all making their way down the cliffs, walking in pairs along the pathsways. Time joined Twilight at the near, and the both slowed just a little. 

"So, goron is it?"

Twilight nodded. "So it seems." 

Time was quiet for a second, the sound of their booted feet hitting the earth filling the space between them. 

"That rocks." 


End file.
